Oral Answers to Questions

Nia Griffith Excerpts

Thursday 28th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Gemma Doyle (West Dunbartonshire) (Lab/Co-op)]

2. What assessment she has made of the cumulative effect of welfare reform legislation on disabled people.

[Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)]

5. What assessment she has made of the cumulative effect of welfare reform legislation on disabled people.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller)]

The Government consult fully with stakeholders on the impact of policy changes and produce robust equality impact assessments, as required by the Equality Act 2010 and its predecessor, the Equality Act 2006.

[Maria Miller]

I understand the hon. Lady’s point, but she knows that neither the Institute for Fiscal Studies nor the Treasury have a methodology to assess such impacts in the way she describes, but I remind her that we have impact assessments and equality assessments for every policy in order to ensure that all the changes that we make benefit the people whom we are trying to support.

[Nia Griffith]

The Government’s Welfare Reform Act 2012 will force families to make children with disabilities share a bedroom with their siblings, regardless of the difficulties and disruption that that may cause. Will the Minister prevail upon colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions to look again at the issue before the 2012 Act is fully implemented, to show some compassion and to let disabled children have a bedroom of their own, where necessary, instead of wasting Government money pursuing a case in the Supreme Court on the issue?

[Maria Miller]

The hon. Lady is right to make sure that we have the right provision to support families in our communities, particularly those with disabled people, and that is why we have made sure that local budgets and funding are available to local authorities so that they can make such discretionary payments. Every family situation is different, and we need to take those differences into account.